


Burke's Books

by i_write_a_lot



Category: White Collar
Genre: Books, El's a prolific reader, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Neal likes books too, Other - Freeform, but even he doesn't read as much as El, more so than Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 07:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1078031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_a_lot/pseuds/i_write_a_lot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal spends a night at the Burke’s, and winds up browsing El’s bookshelf. There’s rather a varied amount of books on there that he’s quite puzzled by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burke's Books

**Author's Note:**

> -I do not own White Collar.
> 
> -I do not own any of the books mentioned within this fanfic. They are used only as references. All of these books (at least some by the authors I've listed) I own, and love to read.

The first thing that Neal always noticed when coming to the Burke’s house was the large bookshelves. Some of them had medium sized stones or rocks that were pretty, trophies from their pasts, and pictures. But almost every shelf had something on it, except for a few shelves on the bottom which were completely empty, as though waiting to be filled.  
Usually he’d just look at them briefly, and then talk to the Burke’s about whatever was going on to cause him to visit-cases, parties, or things like that. Today, however, none of the Burke’s were here yet, and he was only here to walk the dog for them, as Peter was at work and couldn’t get away, and El was off doing who knew what. He figured he had a bit of time to finally, properly scan the bookshelves to see what sorts of books that they read. 

Tom Clancy, big surprise. Clive Cussler. Dean Koontz. Stephen King-now that was a surprise, but King wrote good stuff, so maybe he shouldn’t be all that surprised that they liked him. Then he started getting into the stuff he couldn’t tell whose books they were: Susan Cooper-she was a young adult writer who wrote, it seemed to be, a series called The Dark Is Rising. Then there was the entire Narnia set, all neatly boxed and setting on the shelves. Lord of the Rings as well as the Hobbit and other JRR Tolkien works were there as well. Danielle Steele was there (he guessed Elizabeth read those), as well as Nora Roberts, Catherine Coulter, Jennifer Blake, Cornelia Funke-weird last name...oooh, and Terry Pratchett! Awesome. 

There were quite a number of books that caught his eye, ones that he’d read before. Though there were a few that he didn’t know, some of which were The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. He’d heard about that series from June, and it was on his too read list, though he really didn’t seem to find the time to do so. There was the entire Twilight series-boxed and hardcovers all, it looked like. That was another series that June suggested he read, though she wasn’t sure he would like it, as it was a teenage (vampire!) romance.   
He was about to turn away, when one book in particular caught his eye, as it was all by it’s lonesome, and looking very well read, with the bookmark even in it still. He slowly picked it up, and studied the cover, reading the title quietly to himself. 

“Neal?” El’s voice made him jump, and he quickly turned to see her coming in with bags of groceries. He quickly put the book back to help her out. 

“Hey, El. How was shopping?” He asked, eyeing the bags. 

“Exhausting. All these people, sometimes I can see why there are those who’d go live out in the country.” El said, sighing with relief as Neal took the bags from her. “How long have you been here?” She asked, moving to get a glass of water.

“Oh, a few minutes. I was fixing to take Satchmo out for you guys, since Peter’s swamped at work and couldn’t get free.” Neal explained.

“And killing time by browsing our bookshelves, it looks like.” She said with a grin. “What do you think?”

“You’ve got a broad selection. Some of which I’ve not even heard of.” 

“Most are from my childhood, and I slowly started dragging Peter into reading too,” She explained. “Like The Dark is Rising, that’s an old childhood favorite. It’s rather hard to explain without giving away the plot, however.” She said, frowning. 

“No worries. I barely have time to read much anyway, unless it’s case files.” He said, shrugging. 

“Okay,” She agreed, peacefully. “Want some pie? I bought a nice cherry pie from the store that I was thinking about doing for desert, but it’s rather tempting right now.”

“Pie sounds good-just let me finish taking Satchmo out, and then I’ll join you.” He promised, and she grinned at him as he fetched Satchmo and quickly moved to take him out.  
Once Neal was outside, El went over to the bookshelf that he’d placed the book he’d been holding back, and picked it up, then grinned at seeing The Count of Monte Cristo. It was another old favorite of hers, and-she suspected-a favorite of Neal’s as well. She’d have to slip it into his coat or something when he wasn’t looking. After all that Neal had done for them, it was the least she could do. 

With a smile, she took the book with her into the kitchen, and prepared two plates of cherry pie.

~*~

End

**Author's Note:**

> For those that are curious, here’s a list of the authors and books:
> 
> Tom Clancy  
> Clive Cussler  
> Dean Koontz  
> Steven King  
> Nora Roberts  
> Danielle Steel  
> Catherine Coulter  
> Cornelia Funke  
> Terry Pratchett  
> Jennifer Blake   
> The Dark is Rising-Susan Cooper (young adult series)  
> The Chronicles of Narnia-C. S. Lewis (young adult series)  
> The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit-J. R. R. Tolkien  
> The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins  
> Twilight Saga-Stephanie Meyer  
> The Count of Monte Cristo-Alexandre Dumas
> 
> Kudos, Comments, and whatnot are appreciated.


End file.
